Male-A COURT in the Maldives has ordered a public flogging for a 16-year-old girl who confessed to having premarital sex.

The unnamed teenager was convicted on her confession under sharia law after her family complained she had sex with a 29-year-old man in July. The ruling triggered widespread criticism from rights groups.

The man was given 10 years in jail during a court hearing on the remote Raa atoll on Sunday.

A court official said the girl could refuse the flogging and would then instead be subjected only to eight months house arrest. Should she agree, the lashing will be carried out when she reaches the age of 18.

“In most cases, the offenders would accept the lashing as part of penance,” the official, who declined to be named, said.

The ruling came 10 months after UN human rights chief Navi Pillay urged the Maldives to stop publicly flogging women for having extra-marital or pre-marital sex.

Pillay noted during a visit that the Maldives had progressed in safeguarding the rights of its 330,000 Sunni Muslims, but more needed to be done to protect women.

Flogging, carried out with a cane, is normally handed down as a punishment by village chiefs who also act as local judges.

Rights activists slammed the judgement and called for it to be overturned.

“Degrading and inhuman punishments should find no place in a democracy,” said Aruna Kashyap, women’s rights researcher for Asia at Human Rights Watch.

“Maldives should immediately halt the execution of the punishment and take action to amend its discriminatory laws.”

Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights, said the sentence reflected the government’s intention to consolidate its support among sharia law followers, in the face of serious political opposition.

“This could be used by the government to say they’re committed to Islam,” he said. “Courts are not independent in the Maldives so the government will have a hand.”

There were mixed reactions in comments posted on the local news website Minivan News.

“This is ridiculous, and hypocritical,” said one reader, identified as Mariyam.

“How many people over the age of 18 are having sex outside of marriage every day in this country. Why not flog them. And why not flog the 29-year-old man. If the girl has to face public humiliation why not the man.”

Another, identified as Dhivehi Hanguraama, volunteered to administer the lashing.

“I myself would volunteer to whip this creature, as would any of self-respecting, esteemed, members of the ulama (religious scholars).”

Police said they began their probe after receiving a complaint from the girl’s family.

“We investigated and forwarded our findings to the prosecutor general. The man was convicted of having sex with a minor,” police spokesman Hassan Haneef said.

Official sources said the girl had been tried under sharia law which prohibits girls between the ages of 13 and 18 having pre-marital sex. Sex with a girl under the age of 13 is considered rape.

She was convicted on the basis of her confession.

Her lover, on the other hand, was tried under common law and convicted of having sex with a minor, an offence punishable with a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

The pair had intercourse on the Raa atoll, about 200 kilometres north of the capital island Male.

There was no immediate comment from the Maldivian government, which includes the ultra conservative Adhaalath Party, whose supporters follow a strict brand of Wahhabi Islam.

The country’s first democratically elected president, the Western-educated Mohamed Nasheed, resigned in February saying he was forced out in a coup backed by Islamic extremists along with elements of the police and the armed forces.

However, a Commonwealth investigation declared last week that the transfer of power was constitutional and ruled out a coup.

Mr Nasheed’s fall was followed by the Taliban-style destruction of pre-Islamic era Buddhist statues at the country’s main museum.

According to statistics revealed by the Gender Department in April this year, between December 2010 and October 2011, 1,138 cases of child abuse were reported from atoll family and children service centres. 1,005 of these cases involved minors while 133 of these cases involved victims aged older than 18, the report said.

“The Government has the prime responsibility to protect civilians from all forms of violence. While Government forces have on some occasions, in accordance with international humanitarian law, given civilians a clear opportunity to leave areas it is attacking, on other occasions it has not. Effective warning is required by international humanitarian law, Pillay said in a news release issued Friday.

“Civilians and civilian objects – including homes and other property, businesses, schools and places of worship – must be protected at all times. All parties, including the Government and opposition forces, must ensure that they distinguish between civilian and military targets,” she added.

The UN rights chief also expressed particular concerns over the possibility of a major confrontation between Syrian troops and opposition fighters in the country’s second largest city of Aleppo. Syrian forces have surrounded the east part of the city, which was seized by rebels last week. The rebels in Aleppo are currently bracing themselves for the imminent government offensive.

Although the rebels had launched a similar offensive last week to seize the capital city Damascus, their efforts were thwarted by government forces. While several sections of the city witnessed heavy fighting, Damascus has since been secured by Syrian security forces.

“I have been receiving as yet unconfirmed reports of atrocities, including extra-judicial killings and shooting of civilians by snipers, that took place during the recent fighting in various suburbs of Damascus. It goes without saying that the increasing use of heavy weapons, tanks, attack helicopters and – reportedly – even jet fighters in urban areas has already caused many civilian casualties and is putting many more at grave risk,” Pillay noted in Friday’s press release.

Pointing out that the conflict has so far displaced between one and 1.5 million people in Syria, the UN High Commissioner said “a discernible pattern has emerged” as government forces try to clear areas it says are occupied by opposition forces.

“Typically, during the initial stages, after a village or urban district has been surrounded, water, electricity and food supplies are cut. This is followed by intense shelling and bombardment by a variety of weaponry, increasingly with air support from attack helicopters, and now reportedly even jet aircraft. Then tanks move in, followed by ground forces who proceed door-to-door and reportedly often summarily execute people they suspect of being opposition fighters, although sometimes they detain them,” she said.

About the increasing reports of opposition fighters torturing or executing prisoners, Pillay said murder, willful killings and torture, whether committed by government or opposition forces, constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes. She said evidence gathered from various sources indicate that such crimes are being committed in Syria.

“Those who are committing them should not believe that they will escape justice. The world does not forget or forgive crimes like these. This applies to opposition forces committing crimes as well as to Government forces and their allies,” she added.

The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, killed and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. The opposition, however, claims the actual death toll closer to 17,000.

The ongoing conflict in Syria is now viewed as a civil war by most of the international community and has forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek refuge in camps in neighboring Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.

Since the inception of overseas development assistance almost 50 years ago, donor countries have given some two trillion US Dollars in aid. Yet, at the height of the global financial and economic crises, 18 trillion US Dollars had been found globally to bail out banks and other financial institutions, according to the UN Millennium Campaign.

In a letter addressed to the President of the 13th quadrennial session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Human Rights Chief, Navi Pillay, said that human rights, including the right to development, can help fortify and reinforce the theme of development-centred globalization.

The meeting, which took place this month in Doha, Qatar, focused its discussions on the theme: “Development Centred Globalization: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Growth and Development”.

The report by the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Supachai Panitchpakdi, noted that globalization had been driven by speculative finance, which had established the world economy but also damaged development in developing countries. The document advocated for the start of a new era of development-led globalisation in which the state had to resume its leading role in development, with a North-South deal based on taming the financial sector; turning trade and investment towards development; managing new threats; and more democratic governance of the world economy.

While human rights experts agree that globalization must be development-centred, they also insist that development must go beyond economic growth and be founded on universally agreed human rights standards, including the right to development and rights based approaches to development.

“The process of development itself must be unlocked from the confines of an overly narrow focus on economic growth. The global economic, financial and climate crises have revealed that to reach truly inclusive and sustainable growth, we must also ensure a human face to both development and globalization,” Pillay said. “Human rights can guide our collective responses to contemporary challenges, including globalization and the global crises which have emerged in recent years.”

Participation, transparency and accountability can ensure more inclusive, more sustainable and more efficient development. Furthermore, non-discriminatory development is more equitable, and the empowerment of women, minorities and marginalized communities yields vastly more development dividend.

“Development will be inclusive and sustainable only when those who tend to be excluded have full participation in development. We must give a voice and allow for policy space for the concerns of poor, vulnerable and marginalized individuals and groups,” the High Commissioner said.

“The human rights framework, in particular, the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development, presents a development paradigm aimed at the improved well-being of all people, including through free, active and meaningful participation in development; equitable distribution of the benefits of development locally and globally; and promoting an equitable international order in which all human rights can be realized,” the High Commissioner added. “Shared responsibilities, human rights-based policy coherence and systemic integration, in my view, can further strengthen the global partnership for development.”

At the meeting, several state leaders echoed Pillay’s concern for people-centred growth and development. The civil society declaration called for “a new global social contract, based on universal human rights and on social and environmental justice” and for UNCTAD to “find constructive ways to effectively mainstream human rights – especially the right to development- in its work.”

The outcome documents – Doha Mandate and Doha Manar – acknowledged human development needs and human rights, including the right to development.